Humpty-Dumpty

Last week I finished reading the book All The King's Men by Robert Penn Warren (after a recommendation from my friend Lindsay on her blog) and have been wanting to blog about it so here it goes...

I don't want to pretend to be Spark Notes but the basic plot of the book is about a man named Willie Stark who goes from an idealistic laughingstock to a shrewd, corrupt politician. Having an idea of the plot when I began reading, I wondered if would get too frustrated to finish the book since my strong sense of justice can sometimes take over my emotions. However, I found that not to be the case.

The characters were corrupt (very in fact), and they weren't the kind to get sympathy points... yet the author clearly portrayed them as pagan- agnostic at best. I realized midway through the book that I wasn't frustrated that the characters weren't acting as Christians because they weren't. I've realized recently that just as in literature, I feel myself responding to corrupt, anti-Christian actions in our culture in the same way. Let me explain myself better through the wise words of Mother Goose-

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.

Like Humpty Dumpty, our earth and all of its human inhabitants have fallen- splat- dead in sin since the time of Genesis 3. And no matter how hard we try on our own, organizations, politics, laws, social clubs, etc. will do nothing to make our world a truly better place. But through God's perfect plan, Christ came and by his death and resurrection made his children whole again, which will reach full completion in Heaven someday. But for now, those of us who are Christians live in this broken world as pilgrims since this world is not our home. And since this world is broken and is not our home, I wonder if I, if we, should be surprised as Christians when the world makes choices that hate God. I wonder if we should be surprised that prayer is not allowed in public schools or that abortion is legalized or that evolution is taught. This is not to say that we should not engage in our world- after all, we are called to be in it. But perhaps instead of circling the wagons with other Christians and responding in sometimes border-line hatred towards those who promote ideas contrary to Scripture, we should turn the other cheek and then get back in the world loving those who hate us and speaking truth in love.

I do think, however, that we should be dissatisfied when those who we know as our brothers and sisters in Christ act corruptly in big ways or small ways- by not leaving a decent tip, by getting out of a traffic ticket because of who you know, by gossiping, by turning a blind eye to injustice, by scratching the back of the one who's scratching yours. But won't all Christians act corruptly sometimes? Yes, because our hearts are deceitful above all things even as we go through the process of sanctification. But perhaps before turning our eye towards the natural sin of the world, we should turn our shock inward towards ourselves and our Christian community and ask ourselves, am I allowing Christ to use me as a vessel of honor?